It is well known to those skilled in the art of musical instruments that virtually all musical instruments, including brass instruments as well as woodwind instruments, require a mouthpiece which is usually removably mounted onto the instrument incident to the playing thereof. It is further well known that the tonal qualities and characteristics of any instrument are integrally dependent upon the shape, construction, and configuration of the mouthpiece, regardless of the type of instrument involved.
This is especially true in connection with woodwind instruments, wherein the mouthpiece is designed to accommodate a wood reed which is removably mounted to the mouthpiece, since the tonal characteristics of the instrument will then be directly dependent not only upon the construction of the mouthpiece, but also the quality and character of the reed affixed thereto. In this connection, specific reference is made to instruments such as clarinets and saxophones. The typical mouthpiece for such instruments is constructed in the form of a unitary element which includes a collar end for engaging the instrument neck, which is usually fitted with a cork barrel such that the instrument may be frictionally engaged thereon. The opposed end of the mouthpiece includes a mouth biting portion which is constructed to have an inclined surface along the top portion thereof, and a horizontally flattened surface along the lower portion thereof. The horizontally flattened lower surface is designed to accommodate the reed thereon which is maintained in position, typically, by a metal screw collar. The mouthpiece is hollow throughout, such that a wind channel is created traversing the entire barrel of the mouthpiece. The lower horizontally flattened surface of the mouthpiece further includes a slot which is cut out therein and which extends from the tip end of the mouthpiece inwardly for a distance in the direction of the collar end of mouthpiece. Typically, the slotted cut-out section is bounded by opposed side edges which extend from the tip end of the mouthpiece on a slight angle inwardly to a rounded intersection, and traverses approximately no greater than between 30% and 35% of the overall length of the mouthpiece.
It is known that the manner in which a woodwind instrument such as a clarinet or saxophone will produce certain tonal characteristics relates to the fact that the instrument itself contains a column of air internally of the instrument. The length of the column of air in the instrument is varied by the operator opening or closing various of the keys located on the instrument. Hence, different tones along the scale may be produced thereby. When the operator plays the instrument, air is forced through the mouthpiece into the instrument thereby affecting the air column contained therein. It is further known that air will pass into the mouthpiece from the operator's mouth in vibrating fashion, or in other words, as the operator blows into the instrument, air enters through the reed in a vibrational form. In some ranges of the instrument, for example, air will pass into the instrument at the rate of 440 puffs of air per second. It is further known that the reason for the construction and configuration of the wind channel in the mouthpiece is to control and direct the air vibrations as they pass into the instrument in order to produce the tonal sounds from the instrument. In this connection, it is known that at the high end of the tone range, a relatively small amount of air is necessary to pass through the reed since the reed need only vibrate a small amount in order to formulate the note. At the lower end of the tone register, substantially more air is necessary, since the reed will vibrate at a much slower rate in order to create the note. Therefore, it is known that each note will be sounded based upon the number of vibrations of the reed per second of time. It is further known that as one increases the octave on the instrument, that is, moves to a higher octave, the vibration rate necessary for the reed is doubled for each octave.
It has been found, however, that it is extremely difficult to design a mouthpiece, especially for a wood wind instrument, which permits the operator to have full and brilliant tone qualities at both the low end and the high end of the tonal register of the instrument. In short, when the operator changes his embouchure and the velocity of the wind entering the instrument in order to move from lower to higher registers in the tone and note range, it is difficult for the wind channel in the mouthpiece to accommodate the changes in wind velocity traversing the mouthpiece and entering into the instrument, while still maintaining a steady flow of air into the instrument such that the column of air maintained in the instrument will not be violently disturbed. As indicated previously, if the air column contained within the instrument receives a series of severe vibrational pulses, the column is disrupted, and this has the tendency to distort the tonal characteristics of each of the notes as they are played.